Expecting HR generalists to do a good job managing training and development (T&D) is like expecting electrical engineers to be good at mechanical engineering, or a marketing team to be good at closing sales. Just as engineering has many radically different disciplines and sales is different than marketing, “human resources management” is not the same competency as “training and development management.”

Organizationally, T&D can fall under the HR umbrella, but it should be managed by T&D experts. If this expertise doesn’t exist in house, consider outsourcing T&D management. Here are four reasons why expert management of training and development activity is important:

Productivity and the Bottom Line

What is a 5% productivity gain worth? What if 10% or greater productivity gains could be achieved? How are you measuring productivity? T&D applied toward meaningful productivity improvements can provide huge ROI. For example, if a product development team with $2 million annual labor cost could improve their productivity by 10%, the cost for the same amount of output going forward would be reduced by $182,000. In many cases these gains can be achieved with T&D efforts costing a small fraction of the return when the appropriate experts are engaged.

Managing T&D is Difficult

It requires constant assessment of needs across the entire business; influencing company support; a high level of service; access to the best T&D providers available; and ensuring the desired outcomes and measurable results. Generally this is a full-time job for multiple people, and if internal staffing is inadequate, T&D management

Complexity of T&D Delivery

Delivering effective T&D programs is also very difficult. Educational programs need three important ingredients: relevant content, good design, and strong presentation. Only the most skilled subject-matter-expert training professionals excel in all these areas, and T&D managers need to understand the complexity

A Systematic Approach is Needed

An ad hoc approach to T&D is inefficient and generally ineffective. The investment will produce better returns with a systematic approach.

Check out this article for six additional important reasons:
http://www.aux-training.com/TDManagement.pdf